During the 2022 provincial election, both the Sudbury and Nickel Belt Progressive Conservative candidates skipped debates and avoided all media interviews until after the polls closed.
Despite numerous attempts throughout their respective campaigns, neither Marc Despatie (Sudbury) nor Randy Hazlett (Nickel Belt) returned calls.
Instead, party spokespeople provided written statements with frequent non-answers.
After the polls closed on June 2, 2022, both candidates remained tight-lipped on their respective campaign-period absences from the public spotlight.
“It was a decision that was kind of made between myself and the internal party,” Hazlett said. Although Despatie declined to comment on campaign strategy, he added, “You’ll see that this was not unique to Nickel Belt, it was not unique to Sudbury.”
During a funding announcement at the Naughton municipal water treatment facility on Monday afternoon, Premier Doug Ford offered his own non-answer to a Sudbury.com question regarding his party’s approach to the next election.
Sudbury.com’s verbatim question was as follows:
“In the last election, we didn’t hear much from the local Progressive Conservative candidates. They avoided all media interviews, and after the election we learned it was a top-down directive not to grant those media interviews. Do you have a means of addressing transparency in the next provincial election, whenever that might be called?”
“Well, you know something, we’re focused on getting the province moving forward right now,” Ford said. “That’s the last thing on my mind, to be very frank with you.”
The balance of his response did not address the question. Instead, he talked about infrastructure, the gas tax, affordability, economic development and how other governments increase taxes.
Nickel Belt NDP MPP France Gélinas, who was at the press conference, told Sudbury.com she felt the premier’s answer was telling.
“Transparency and accountability is almost impossible with this government,” she said, adding that she has been waiting for as long as two-and-a-half years for documents through the freedom of information process which should have been made public to begin with.
“They have their message, they repeat the same message over and over and don’t let anyone else speak,” Gélinas said.
Whenever the next provincial election takes place, Gélinas said that she expects to see more of the same from Progressive Conservatives.
“Their candidates won’t be allowed to talk, their candidates won’t be allowed to share anything with the media. It will all come from central, so that they control the message all the way. ... They do the same thing at Queen’s Park. Even the MPPs are not allowed to speak.”
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In response to a question during Monday’s media event, Ford said, “There’s not going to be any early election this year.”
For whenever there is an election, Ford capped his comments by urging people to vote “PC blue” to reap greater benefits.
“Look what happened to Thunder Bay, look what happened to Timmins when they flipped,” he said. “110 visits up in Thunder Bay from ministers? It says it all.”
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
